The State Duma will pass "Kiss Day"

The State Duma will take a protest against homophobia on Wednesday. At noon, its participants will defiantly kiss the Duma building, where on this day the law on the ban on gay propaganda will be considered. "Kiss Day" is held at the initiative of journalist and LGBT activists Elena Kostyuchenko.

“We decided this time not to picket and not to rally. We will simply kiss our loved ones. Gays, lesbian, transgender, bisexuals and, of course, our friends heterosexuals are all against fascist laws,” the Facebook campaign said .

“In short, this law wants to make about 5% of Russians invisible,” Kostyuchenko writes . “7 million people, including me. Including your loved ones, possibly your children, sisters and brothers, classmates and classmates, friends and colleagues. Yes, we are deprived of the right to marriage, the rights to joint custody of children, the rights to peaceful processions - but now we are deprived of the right to simply be ourselves.”

On December 8, in an interview with five television channels, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev spoke out against the legislative regulation of gay propaganda, and after the air assured that the relevant law would not be considered in the State Duma.

In March, the State Duma received a bill on "propaganda of homosexuality among minors." Its initiator was the Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Region. The bill proposes amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, according to which the “propaganda of homosexuality among adolescents” provides a fine of four thousand to five thousand rubles. The penalty for officials is ten times more, for legal entities - to the service station.

Until now, the document does not have a clear definition of the concept of "propaganda of homosexuality." It is assumed that the wording will be prepared for the second reading of the bill. The head of the Duma committee on family, women and children, Elena Mizulina, designated some of them. "Gay parades fall here, since they take place on the squares and streets where there are parents and children. It is quite obvious that direct agitation of homosexual contacts, or programs and programs that justify homosexual relations and substantiate their need, will also fall under propaganda," the deputy said.

Similar laws apply in a number of Russian regions. In November, the UN Human Rights Committee recognized the imposition of an administrative fine under the Ryazan law on the prohibition of propaganda of homosexuality. According to the decision of the committee, the Russian authorities are obliged to reimburse all victims of the homophobic law paid by their fines and legal costs, as well as pay compensation. In addition, the respondent state is obliged to “avoid such violations in the future” and bring internal legislation in line with the 19th and 26th articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights . These articles guarantee freedom of speech and protection against any form of discrimination.

The Committee made this decision on the complaint of LGBT activist Irina Fedotova, who, together with his associate Nikolai Bayev, was brought to administrative responsibility and was fined for 1,500 rubles for pickets in Ryazan in the spring of 2009. The Committee came to the conclusion that “demonstrating the posters” of homosexuality is normal ”and“ I am proud of my homosexuality ”near the high school building, the applicant did not commit any public actions aimed at involving minors in any specific sexual actions or campaigning in favor of any specific sexual orientation.” According to UN experts, Fedotova "expressed her sexual identity and achieved its understanding."

On October 3, the Supreme Court rejected the complaint against the St. Petersburg Law on the prohibition of propaganda of homosexuality among minors. LGBT activists indicated that the law uses the concepts of “propaganda”, “bisexualism”, “transgender”, “traditional and non-traditional marriage relations” that do not have legal definitions. According to the applicants, the law does not comply with federal law, since "any public mention of homosexuality can be regarded as an administrative offense." In May, the City Court of St. Petersburg rejected their complaint.

According to the law, which entered into force on March 30, “public actions aimed at promoting soudy, lesbianism, bisexualism, transgenderness among minors, entail an administrative fine for citizens in the amount of 5 thousand rubles, for officials - 50 thousand rubles, for legal entities - from 250 thousand to 500 thousand rubles.” On June 7, the law similar to St. Petersburg was adopted in the Novosibirsk region.